EE set to bring 400Mbps LTE-A to the UK

EE aiming for the fastest 4G network anywhere in the world

If you’re a regular reader you’ll likely know that EE is currently trialling 300Mbps 4G in London’s Tech City and plans to bring it to the rest of London next year. But the network’s plans don’t end there, as it’s now announced that it’s working on download speeds of up to 400Mbps as well.

In a conversation with V3.co.uk, EE network integration director Mansoor Hanif explained that with the rollout of 300Mbps 4G EE “will target areas with higher traffic and that is mostly London; business areas in central London and anywhere else we see high usage of the 4G network.”

Speeds of 300Mbps would put the UK at the cutting edge of mobile technology, almost on par with the likes of South Korea and ahead of America. As yet no networks anywhere in the world have launched 400Mbps but EE’s aiming to have a commercial network of that speed up and running by sometime in 2016.

Wembley Stadium is likely to be the first place to receive that speed boost, but EE then aims to bring it to London and presumably other parts of the UK.

As well as making the UK one of the fastest 4G countries in the world these plans could put EE even further ahead of the other UK networks, because as yet none of them have even announced plans for LTE-A in the UK, though Vodafone and Telefonica (O2’s parent company) have both carried out small scale LTE-A tests in Germany so presumably it’s in the pipeline.

To enjoy 400Mbps speeds though you will likely need a new device as very few current handsets even support 300Mbps speeds. There are also problems which manufacturers and networks will need to overcome, such as ensuring that handsets which are equipped to handle those speeds don’t overheat, but we’re sure EE will figure it out.